Pace Adds Shoulder Bus Service On Edens Expressway

CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Pace and the Illinois Department of Transportation have launched bus-on-shoulder operations on the Edens Expressway.

Routes 620 and 626, which both service Skokie and other nearby Northwest Side suburbs, began using the right hand shoulder of the highway earlier this month. Pace board chairman Rick Kwasnewski said the program was recently expanded after previous success along the Stevenson Expressway.

“We've had great success on Interstate 55 bus-on-shoulder, increased our on-time performance from 65 percent to 90 percent by going on the shoulder," he said at a press conference Monday. "Also, we've increased our ridership by 600 percent."

Under the bus-on-shoulder program, busses can take to a specific shoulder of an interstate if traffic is moving less than 35 miles per hour. Officials say the service improves travel for transit riders as well as drivers on the roadways. It could expand the program in the coming years.